Garden Railway Forum

No chance! The engine is flat out at about 5,000rpm and tick over around 1,000rpm, possibly less. I did some rough calculations and realised that even in low gear it was only about 7:1 overall, so it would have gone like a Ferrari whilst sounding like a farting tortoise! So an extra gear reduction s...

Progress report: As it happened I had a suitable chassis around, albeit with an electric motor in it. The electric motor and its gears were removed leaving a very usable chassis. I have opted to use meccano gears for the transmission, as they are easily available and should handle the load. Being br...

This is the beast: https://www.banggood.com/Eachine-ET5-Mini-Gasoline-Engine-Model-Stirling-Water-cooled-Cooling-Structure-p-1686955.html?utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=cpc_organic&gmcCountry=GB&utm_content=minha&utm_campaign=minha-gb-en-pc&currency=GBP&createTmp=1&...

First post for rather a long time! Well I have a nice little project for the lockdown, there has recently come on to the market an absolutely gorgeous little petrol stationary engine that I feel is just begging to go into a 16mm scale locomotive. It has several characteristics which make it particul...

Mine is the 'Skinton - Pen-y-lles Light Railway'

Those pictures of that mamod going through the snow just looks so right! lovin it! wehre those coaches made of card by the way? Made from wood. The closed coach was one I bought second hand, probably scratch built, The open one is a Tenmille Tallilyn (sp?) kit, but with wood strip used instead of t...

Ah the joys of snow! Takes me back... to 1991... IIRC. I was at home, and it started to snow... A LOT!!! So I quickly bashed up a snowplough from meccano, and bolted it to the front of my only loco. This is what it was like when I started, a little more than an inch or so had fallen, but it was comi...

Well I have the date pencilled in, will we be running works trains as the build progresses? (even if it is only a few flat wagons bringing cups of tea!) Are you thinking about security? I know it would be tempting to put mains voltage on the rails but I have a few ideas about a cheap alarm, and I co...

Great..... worthy of a whole topic on its own..what do you think? Crackingjob Well, as it happens... http://modelsteam.myfreeforum.org/about246.html And also a little video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK49MIeEQhg As I seem to be permanently skint, most of my locos have been built on a budget! N...

I was originally going to do that, but I am rather starting to like it the way it is. I just need to get the wheels sorted and painted so they match each other and I think that may well be its final livery.

Great video. Ever thought of writing an article for Garden Rail? I may do an article for one of the magazines, maybe SMT, I have not really thought about it. I have however covered its progress here: http://modelsteam.myfreeforum.org/ftopic14110-0.php It could form the basis of an article! Nice vid...

It was a nice day, so I took Janus to the Butterley Garden railway.  This is its first run outside: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYWInVJ12Ag It ran very well, although train length was limited to what would fit in the loop - whilst sharing the track with other locos I wanted to be able to let them...

The bit about light rain being the worst is very true: when I drove the 2' gauge at Butterley, which is nearly all downhill after you get out through the site gates, I was always most worried on drizzly days - not that I wouldn't get back up, but that the train might run away down hill! Never bothe...

I still have plenty to do on my existing 4 Mamod based steam locomotives at the moment!

The only loco that I may want to add to my collection is a completely original Mamod SL, mainly as to use as a 'before' in any 'before and after' type comparisons with the modified ones!!

Technically yes, as that it what is shown on the original Mallet patent and how the original engines were built - small high pressure cylinders on the fixed rear engine, and large low pressure on the swivelling front bogie. However, it does seem that the term Mallet was often used to describe non-co...

That would be a challenge! A compound Mamod - I would have to make the larger cylinders though! In any case I already have my next Mamod loco project in mind, its big, it will take some time to complete, but I may make a start on it this year...

Just a little update! I took it to the Merstham show last weekend and it decided to run brilliantly - check out these videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivaZvZUzaF0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkzQTwsDPIA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjRziEniwtA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxz5-EsidD8 Ju...

The bogies have arrived, and I must say I am rather pleased. Most of them are in fact fully sprung, and most of the ones that are not have full compensation, so should give a lovely ride. Seems a bit of a bargain compared to buying new over here. there are a couple of things, they are quite short wh...

I want one of these!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uwNulZLSFnI

For a first steaming they seem to be better than my set. Mine were perfectly steam tight, but a little stiff as if the O ring was slightly oversize. They seem to be getting better as they are run in, and I am sure that they will be requiring less steam, so that instead there is extra pressure which ...